Categories: News

Youth concerned about gambling, report shows

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-887" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;06&sol;SN25-News-Gambling&lowbar;299x223&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SN25-News-Gambling 299x223" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"299" height&equals;"223" &sol;>A report on youth gambling using data from the Youth&&num;8217&semi;12 Health and Wellbeing Survey has been published by the University of Auckland and UniServices&period; The report was commissioned by the Ministry of Health to explore the impacts of gambling and problematic gambling amongst youth in New Zealand and to identify risk and protective measures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Youth&&num;8217&semi;12 survey found that overall there were small&comma; but statistically significant&comma; decreases in the amount of time and money that students spent on gambling from 2007 to 2012&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nearly one quarter of the 8500 secondary school students surveyed reported gambling in some form over the previous year&comma; with most saying they gamble to have fun&comma; win money or because they want a challenge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While the most common gambling activities were &&num;8216&semi;Bets with friends or family&&num;8217&semi;&comma; &&num;8216&semi;Instant Kiwi &lpar;scratchies&rpar;&&num;8217&semi;&comma; and &&num;8216&semi;Cards or coin games &lpar;e&period;g&period; poker&rpar;&&num;8217&semi;&comma; some students had participated in gambling activities that are illegal for their age group &lpar;e&period;g&period; gambling at a casino&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some youth feel the negative effects of gambling more acutely than others&period; The negative impacts of gambling were felt at disproportionate levels by young people living in neighbourhoods of higher deprivation and for M&amacr;ori&comma; Pacific and Asian youth&period; Students of M&amacr;ori&comma; Pacific and Asian origin were more likely to report worrying about the time and money they spent on their own gambling than New Zealand European students&comma; &lpar;M&amacr;ori 18 per cent&comma; Pacific 36 per cent&comma; Asian 24 per cent and New Zealand European six per cent&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Similar trends were seen for youth worrying about the gambling behaviour of family and wh&amacr;nau&comma; &lpar;M&amacr;ori 15 per cent&comma; Pacific 24 per cent&comma; Asian 11 per cent&comma; New Zealand European five per cent&rpar;&period; Three per cent of all students said there had been gambling-related arguments in their family during the previous year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Concern about other people&&num;8217&semi;s gambling behaviour was particularly pronounced for M&amacr;ori and Pacific youth living in areas of high deprivation&comma; &lpar;22&period;2 percent and 27&period;9 per cent respectively&rpar;&period;<br &sol;>University of Auckland researcher Dr Fiona Rossen says the findings that show youth living in more deprived neighbourhoods are disproportionately affected by gambling&comma; are consistent with adult gambling research&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The effects of gambling on communities are strongly linked to deprivation&period; For example&comma; the greater density of gambling outlets in low-deprivation neighbourhoods can entice people into gambling as a way of making money and escaping poverty&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Gambling is a socially acceptable activity in New Zealand&comma; even amongst young people&comma; and it is important to consider the roles of parents&comma; gambling industries&comma; communities and media in shaping young peoples&&num;8217&semi; perceptions of gambling&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Dr Rossen says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Other findings show that of the students who had gambled in the previous year&comma; 21 per cent were worried about or had tried to cut down on their own gambling activities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nearly 60 per cent of students who had gambled in the past year reported that they would look to parents&comma; and half would talk with friends for support for problem gambling&period; Seventeen per cent said that they would not look for help at all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Dr Rossen hopes the report will increase awareness about how parents&&num;8217&semi; gambling affects young people and the dangers of youth gambling&comma; and also lead to public health services including treatment&comma; education and prevention for young people and their families&sol;wh&amacr;nau around issues impacting on youth gambling&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>www&period;youthresearch&period;auckland&period;ac&period;nz<&sol;em><br &sol;><em>The Gambling Report is available online through the Ministry of Health and the Adolescent Health Research Group websites&period;<&sol;em><br &sol;><em>Gambling is defined as &&num;8220&semi;having bet precious things for money on an activity&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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